Training in Gunblade 101
by Technohazard
Summary: first chapter of a [hopefully] long-running fic. Seifer's new gunblade student becomes his new rival. will only continue if i get 10 reviews.


[Squaresoft owns all the places and everyone in this fic, except Karasu, and he's MINE ^_^ Send good reviews to me [Technohazard], send bad reviews to the recycle bin. I'll only post the rest when I get 10 reviews, so get typing!]  
  
Training In Gunblade 101  
  
Seifer's eyes scanned the roomful of new Gunblade students. It was the usual motley crew. Posers who wanted the attention of using the same weapon as that show-off Squall, who were making experimental swipes at stationary objects, then falling over and pretending that it never happened. Rejects who thought that a weapon might give them some sex appeal, carrying swords fancifully named things like "Excalibur" or "Demon Slayer". Some actual promising students were dotted about here and there. He began to really despair as he heard one of them say "Crap! I thought this was Rifles!" and watch him wander out back into the corridor. He groaned inwardly as he noticed the few girls who remained. Girls? Now that was stretching the term to its limits. Most of them were butch, hairy, braless feminists, trying to prove that they could compete with the men, who appeared to have walked into the shop and said "get me the biggest, heaviest, most impractical gunblade you've got. And etch some skulls into it!" they were mostly holding the gunblades casually in one hand, or resting on their shoulder, trying to prove they were as male as the men. Feminists! They were less feminine than he was! The rest were truly pathetic bimboes. Blonde waifs who seemed to think that the best way to meet a fit guy was to try ridiculously to lift a gunblade, and get the men to help. Most of them didn't seem to even own a gunblade, never mind be able to use one at all, but some of them had made a token effort. One was carrying a bayonet. He wondered idly how many of his new pupils could ever kill someone, and how many would ever have to. "Ah well" he thought "It's time" he stepped back, drew Hyperion and smoothly shot a hole in the wall at the opposite side of the room. He knew that Squall hated it when he did that, so he did it at every opportunity. The room fell silent instantly. "Now" he said, into the clip on microphone, smiling inwardly as his voice echoed around the room. "You've all come here to learn to use a gunblade. Why?" A boy in the front row raised his hand. Seifer pointed at him, and he spoke nervously. "Because we want to be like Squall?" he asked. Seifer smiled encouragingly then threw the gunblade into the ground, where it stuck, inches away from the student's face. "Wrong answer." He said, a trace of humour in his voice "You're all here because you want to learn how to fight properly, not mess about with rifles and chainwhips and all those other poofy little toys they play with in the training centre." There was a snigger from the back of the room, and Seifer looked up to see a young man with waist length blue hair tied into a braid at the back, and two dreadlocks at the front was grinning at him. He was leaning nonchalantly against the wall, and had a gunblade propped up on the wall beside him. Seifer sighed. "What's so funny, student." He demanded. The feline boy smiled, "Nothing, sir" he purred arrogantly. Seifer got angry. "What's your student ID number?" he commanded. The boy kept smiling at him, evilly. "I1a69" he smirked. Seifer coloured. This guy wasn't just arrogant, he wasn't afraid of him. He reminded Seifer of himself when he was still a student. The boy smiled, more warmly this time and said, in a weirdly echoing voice, which almost made Seifer shudder: "Actually, its 28051, sir. Cadet Karasu." Seifer shook his head quickly, trying to not get dragged into an argument with a student. It was below him. He should argue with his equals. He looked at him sternly. "Well 28051, just remember all the Instructors aren't as forgiving as I am. Say that to anyone else and you've got problems." The boy nodded lazily. "Yes, sir" he said again.  
  
The class slowly trooped out into the quad, and lined up along the side of the path. Seifer went to each of them, correcting their grip on the gunblade handles, and telling them to lower their stance. Two of the bimboes collapsed in a fit of laughter at some private joke, and had to leave. "Thank Hyne!" he thought, "Two less to worry about!" he got to the end of the line, where cadet Karasu was standing. He was standing as if he had spent his whole life fighting with the gunblade, but Seifer couldn't resist correcting his posture slightly, just to piss him off. The boy was a troublemaker, no doubt about it. And one of those people who could afford to piss the Instructors off, because they would get high marks anyway. Damn them all. He was about sixteen, and was wearing a long black coat, a grey T-shirt, tight black jeans with silver stitching and heavy boots which reached halfway up his shins, fastened with greyed steel bindings. The whole effect was like looking at a black and white photo, except for his eyes, which were a deep, unearthly gold. The boy's skin was alabaster white, and deathly cold, Seifer began to wonder when Garden had begun to take on undead recruits. "Now," he began "In a fight, you will mainly have to rely on instinct. This is not an excuse for you to just slash wildly at the targets in training, as gradually, if you practice well, the right method will eventually become instinct. Now, when fighting an opponent you have to remember one thing. Never panic. A volunteer, please?" He smiled; this was usually his favourite part of the lesson, the part which always scared new students. He would select a random member of the class and allow them to hit him with a gunblade. He would then cast Cure or Cura on himself, and the wound would instantly heal, thus demonstrating that if you didn't panic and forget what to do you would nearly always be able to find a way to escape. Looking up and down the lines, he couldn't see one student that wouldn't either cut him in half or miss him completely, until he noticed Karasu, who was rapidly becoming his favourite student. "28051, here. You just volunteered" Karasu stepped forward gracefully, carrying his gunblade on his back. He drew it and faced Seifer professionally. Seifer was beginning to suspect that he had been training somewhere else. "Yes, sir" the boy murmured. Seifer struggled to concentrate; the boy was so. something. He smiled briskly and said "Right then. All you have to do is try to kill me. One slash only, preferably not to my head - I want to teach this class tomorrow, right?" Karasu looked startled "I can't do that, sir," he said. Seifer rolled his eyes. "Why not 28051?" he groaned. The slim boy smiled cruelly, lifted the gunblade and sheared it cleanly through a rock. "That's why" he said. Seifer was somewhat surprised, the boy was so slim and wraithlike, at first he had doubted that he could even lift a gunblade. The boy spoke again, "But if you hit me I could demonstrate what you were going to do" and the look in the boy's eyes told him that he knew what Seifer was going to have done, and that it wasn't the show-stopping demonstration of power he had hoped it would be. Seifer shook his head slightly. "I cant do that" he sad gruffly. Karasu looked at him again with those piercing green eyes. "Why not?" he asked, questioningly, obviously thinking that Seifer would show himself up. "Because." Seifer began. He really wanted to say, "Because you are one of the sort of people I would have hated as a student, and I doubt I could refrain from killing you." but instead said: "Regulations. If I half-killed you there'd be so much red tape they'd kick me out of the academy. Again." The boy smiled triumphantly, and looked around the class, getting laughs and smiles of encouragement from his fellow students, who appreciated seeing an Instructor being humiliated. "Class dismissed!" he shouted, flustered, and hurried out into the corridor. He ran on, with the intention of escaping to his dorm for a shower. Or a beer. Or preferably a time compression, so he could start the day again and direct Karasu to another class, preferably Nida's. He grinned at the thought of the supernaturally boring pilot trying to teach Karasu how to fly. As he reached the corner of the familiar corridor to his dorm he slowed down to a sedate walk. He calmed down greatly, but as he rounded the corner he saw a huge pile of his belongings out in the corridor, and a troop of Garden faculties carrying them away. And the boy, waiting there at the door to his dorm! At his actual door! He panicked. It was all he could do to not run away. He reached the boy and walked past, attempting to open the door. The boy was just watching him, examining the scarred blonde, criticising him. Seifer stopped trying to unlock the door, turned to face him and confronted him. "What do you want?" he demanded. "Extra tuition? Get screwed!" the boy smiled, and for a second Seifer thought he had the advantage. "Nothing." the boy drawled "I was just checking out my new dorm, Squall decided to let me swap with you. He said that as the most promising Cadet in Garden I deserve a better dorm, and that since you were a failing Instructor with delusions of grandeur you should be downgraded. " Seifer opened his mouth in shock, but the boy strode off down the corridor, presumably to get his belongings. Seifer didn't dare follow. He let himself into his now empty room, and threw his coat onto the floor, as he always had since joining Garden. He graduated as a SeeD after Squall defeated Ultimecia, two days before his nineteenth birthday, when he would have to leave Garden had he not. He declined from going into battle again, and as they were looking for a new gunblade instructor, he applied for the job and was astounded when he got it. He suspected Squall had something to do with this, he knew that he wanted his friends to get the glory, so resigned his enemies to what he considered to be the less glamorous jobs. But Seifer loved teaching, and the Garden's gunblade specialists were now world famous as the best. That had rattled Squall more than anything else, but now Seifer was bored again. Being an instructor was fun, but he needed something else to do except teach. Fujin and Raijin had moved out of Garden, they hadn't passed the test, and the last he heard they were living together in Galbadia. He sighed. They were always so close, the three of them, but now they had drifted apart, just like he had always known they would. He mentally shook himself. He had new friends now. When Selphie and Irvine had seen him on the day that his Posse left, they came over to speak to him, and invited him to go to the graduation ball with them and Zell and Quistis. Zell had been a little uneasy around him, but Seifer made the effort and was civil. There was a knock at the door and his heart almost stopped with fear that it would be Karasu. He answered it to find that it was only Selphie, bringing back one of his CDs, which she had borrowed a few months ago. He was sure that she just stored them up and brought them back one at a time for an excuse to come and see him. He wondered if he should tell Irvine. "Hello Selphie." He stated, without much enthusiasm. "Heeey!" she said cheerfully, handing him the CD. This one wasn't even his. She was getting desperate. He grunted. "What're you so happy for?" he growled irritably, not really caring. She grinned widely. "Have you seen the new gunblade student?" she asked, excitedly. He was about to point out that there were 24 new gunblade students, and that he had spoken at least briefly to all of them, but he knew who she meant. "Karasu?" he asked innocently. Selphie jumped up in the air and squealed delightedly, partially deafening him. "Oooooohhh! He's soooooo cute!" she giggled "Even Quistis thinks so. and we all know what she's like!" he groaned inwardly again. The theories surrounding Quistis' sexuality were interesting to say the least, even though he was sure that she had just (like him) realised that there was no one in Garden with an ounce of charm, taste, sex appeal or even style. Selphie was perfect testament to this. He was about to say so, when the object of Selphie's attention walked around the corner. She ran up to him and began to hop up and down to try to get his attention. He smiled at her, and struck up a conversation. They walked off down the corridor in unison, talking and laughing. Now he was getting angry. Just a few days ago she would have been flirting relentlessly with him, dammit! The bell rang to signal that the cafeteria was serving, so he headed off down the corridor after the rapidly-departing Karasu. He scanned the cafeteria quickly. There was Selphie, sitting with Karasu, acting in a way which Seifer thought was definitely worthy of Irvine's concern. Squall and Rhino were gazing into each other's eyes at the opposite end of the cafeteria, (Yuck! Romance was so. pointless!) And Seifer couldn't resist picking up one of the cheap paper salt packets from the serving hatch and throwing it between them, distracting them from whatever happy rose-petal filled world they were floating around in. He smirked. Quistis was sitting alone, as ever, staring into the murky depths of a coffee cup. By the look on her face as she took a sip from the cup it must have been brewing for days. He walked over and sat down opposite her, lifting the bottom half of his trenchcoat up off the floor and spreading it out on the seat behind him. She looked up and acknowledged his existence for a second, then went back to staring at the coffee. He leaned over playfully and looked into the cup, as if he expected to see a mini-tv showing hentai. Quistis looked up irritably, to see who had disturbed her thoughts, but smiled slightly as she saw that it was Seifer. She had voted eighteen times in last year's "Sexiest Man In Garden" and had been overjoyed when Seifer won. To say that she had developed a slight crush on him was an understatement. He revelled in the knowledge of this, so was most disappointed when she said; "Is Karasu with you? I heard that you were quite good friends." Seifer felt like hitting his head off a brick wall. He liked a little competition, as long as he was sure he would win - like Squall. Now that guy had almost nearly worried him, but Karasu was a genuine threat. "No." he stated bluntly, adding "and he's no friend of mine." Quistis grinned. "And I've heard he's competing in the contest this year." She teased. "Gonna compete? Or do you know when you're out of your league." Seifer flushed bright red, then stood up quickly, turned away and left. He could see only one way to remove of this problem. Actually he could see two, but the second involved ground glass and coffee, and he doubted that he could ever actually seriously hurt the poor boy. He smiled evilly to himself. He would get the attention that he deserved back, would win the "Sexiest Man In Garden" award for the third year running, and he would get his fun. He almost laughed out loud, and set off back to his dorm with a song in his heart. 


End file.
